This repository hosts the software for the Advanced Simulation Testbed for Robotics on Orbit, developed to support experimental validation of spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithms for autonomous proximity operations, rendezvous, formation flying, and cooperative maneuvers in space-like environments. The testbed is primarily aimed at enabling realistic real-time testing of space flight scenarios, including perturbation modeling, sensor emulation, and communication constraints.
- 🌌 Perturbation modeling for orbital dynamics
- 📡 Emulated onboard sensors (e.g., GPS, RADAR) with configurable noise and update rates
- 🔁 Modeling of inter-satellite communication links
- 🛰️ Support for relative navigation strategies including angle-only tracking and nonlinear observers
- 🎯 Capability to simulate both cooperative and adversarial scenarios (e.g., pursuit-evasion)
This repository includes:
MATLAB/Simulinkmodels for spacecraft dynamics, GNC, and sensor emulationROS-based infrastructure with real-time integration and code generation for NVIDIA Jetson hardwareC++ROS nodes and drivers for hardware interfacing- Configuration files and mission templates for replicable experiments
The repository is actively maintained and intended to serve both as a research platform and an educational tool. For a detailed description of the testbed architecture, software stack, and experiment implementation, please refer to Chapter 8 of the PhD thesis:
"Autonomous GNC of Spacecraft Rendezvous and Formation Flying on Perturbed Highly Elliptical Orbits"
by Yazan Chihabi, Carleton University, 2025 can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11nnsbvVTmuAQnpLAAndDvMByMF42Up8P/view?usp=drivesdk
Contributions, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome to help improve the platform.